Thirty Years' War · 1618-1629

The Thirty Years' War begins

In 1618 Protestant nobles throw two royal officials out of a window of Prague Castle. Students follow how a revolt in Bohemia grew into a war that drew in much of Europe and devastated the German lands.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1618
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In 1618 Protestant nobles throw two royal officials out of a window of Prague Castle. Students follow how a revolt in Bohemia grew into a war that drew in much of Europe and devastated the German lands.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain how the Defenestration of Prague in 1618 led to a wider war.
  • Locate Prague, White Mountain and Heidelberg and explain their role.
  • Describe how the conflict grew from a local revolt into a European war.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1618

Bohemia in the empire

Open the map in 1618 and zoom in on Bohemia, around Prague. Which empire includes it? Which neighbours surround it?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1620

White Mountain

Turn on Historical Events and choose Battles. Find the Battle of White Mountain just west of Prague in 1620. Who won, and what happened to Protestant Bohemia afterwards?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1618

A war spreads

Zoom out over the Holy Roman Empire and its neighbours: Denmark, Sweden, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic. Which of them might want to join a war inside the empire, and why?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why did the Bohemian nobles throw the officials out of a window, rather than simply protest?
  2. All the men thrown out survived. Catholics and Protestants told very different stories about why. What does this show about propaganda?
  3. Frederick V was mocked as the "Winter King". Why?
  4. Was the war mainly about religion, or about power between rulers? Find evidence for both.
  5. Why do local conflicts sometimes grow into wars that involve many countries?
4

Game round

10 min

Play a round of Rule History as Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 1600 he won the battle of Sekigahara and ended a long age of civil war in Japan, just as Germany was sliding into one. Discuss: which choices help a ruler stop a civil war, and which make it worse?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.